■ North Korea
Reactors may be suspended
The executive board of the consortium constructing two light-water nuclear reactors in North Korea has discussed suspending the project -- possibly for a year -- and will make an announcement no later than Nov. 21, officials said. Members of the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization, or KEDO, met in New York on Monday and Tuesday for informal talks, including discussion of the US$4.6 billion project to build two energy-generating reactors in North Korea. "What was discussed at the meeting was suspending the project for one year. Nothing more or nothing less," South Korean Foreign Minister Yoon Young-kwan said in Seoul yesterday. ``This issue has not been officially decided. It was discussed," he said at a weekly briefing.
■ Hong Kong
Japanese encephalitis scare
A 38-year-old Hong Kong woman was seriously ill with Japanese encephalitis yesterday in the first case of the mosquito-born disease in the territory for seven years. The woman from Hong Kong's Yuen Long district near the Chinese border was in intensive care after being admitted with a fever late last month, a Department of Health spokesman said. The case is the first in Hong Kong since 1996, but the spokesman stressed there was no risk of it being passed on as humans were a "dead end" carrier of the disease. Japanese encephalitis is spread by infected mosquitos and has a 30 percent mortality rate. There are between 30,000 and 50,000 cases each year in Asia.
■ Hong Kong
China backs Tung
A top Beijing official reiterated support Wednesday for Hong Kong's unpopular leader Tung Chee-hwa (董建華), and called on the public to help keep society stable. Opposition lawmakers charged that Beijing still failed to see that Tung is the biggest problem facing Hong Kong as it tries to bounce back from troubles including a bad economy. The central government has ramped up its support for Tung ever since a July 1 march by 500,000 people forced him to backtrack on a controversial anti-subversion bill, throwing his government into crisis. But Vice Premier Zeng Peiyan is the first ranking official to deliver a message underpinning Beijing's backing in person since the demonstration, which he didn't directly mention.
■ China
17 firefighters killed
The number of firefighters killed while trying to put out a building fire in southern China has risen to 17 and three others remain missing, the official Xinhua News Agency said yesterday. Sixteen people, including four journalists, were also injured in the blaze in Hengyang, a city in Hunan Province, Xinhua said, without providing more details. The disaster appeared to be one of the deadliest ever suffered by China's firefighters. Paramilitary troops and mine rescue crews were helping to search the ruins of the eight-story building, which caught fire before dawn Monday, the China News Service reported.
■ China
Red envelopes tested
A bride and groom in northern China used an anti-counterfeit scanner at their reception to make sure they were not given fake bank notes as gifts, a news report said yesterday. The couple from Harbin, Heilongjiang, rented the machine for their wedding after hearing stories of tight-fisted guests giving bogus notes as gifts, the South China Morning Post reported.
■ Belgium
Israel is a threat, EU says
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